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It's not every day the opportunity comes along to gather wild leeks with northern Michigan local-food entrepreneur Timothy Young. And later go into the fields of a Leelanau County farm to learn methods and crop rotation and pick vegetables prepared under a chef who also will bone out a pig as a prelude to dinner.

But that's a taste of what awaits a small group of people who paid at least $1,500 apiece for a three-day excursion later this month into the Grand Traverse Bay area's food scene — a trip that's the latest iteration of international and Michigan food tours run under a well-known brand: Ann Arbor-based Zingerman's.

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Timothy Young: Takes guests leek-picking in woods.

Begun years ago to take people to the European sources of foods sold in Zingerman's Delicatessen, the food tours are a small but expanding business line in the family of food-related companies and ventures known as Zingerman's Community of Businesses, which operate under parent company Dancing Sandwich Enterprises Inc.

Whether destinations like Tuscany and Morocco or day trips by bike being planned into parts of Detroit's food landscape, Zingerman's Food Tours aim to connect people with the sources, stories, experiences and flavors of a region. Part history, culture and learning, the idea is to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of a destination and "a much better sense of the place," said Amy Emberling, co-managing partner of the retail and wholesale bakery Zingerman's Bakehouse.

And, she added, "just to have a really nice time."

Emberling is among Zingerman's employees who have led international tours, and she developed tours for Hungary after visiting there to research Hungarian baking. A tour next year includes cooking lessons and demonstrations from chefs and bakers and visits to food and wine producers.

"We travel, we see incredible things that are related to food, have a wonderful experience," Emberling said. "We thought, we have these connections, why don't we bring people to what we're finding." finding."

The international tours are about 10 days for 15 or fewer people and are priced from $5,500 to $6,850, depending on the destination and single or shared room. Zingerman's tour leaders join with local guides who handle logistics and are paid for helping Zingerman's take travelers into a region.

Zingerman's Michigan touring began with Traverse City/Leelanau Peninsula-area trips in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Among those attending last year's trip — and now leading tours — were Janene Centurione, then-managing director of the University of Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care, and husband Dan Centurione, a principal at BAKE!, Zingerman's teaching bakery.

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Janene Centurione: "Hard-core" foodie wants to spread the gospel.

Passport to state tastes

The Centuriones saw tour participants interested in greater interaction with the local food community, and that led to the more extensive format seen in the Grand Traverse Bay tour and a new relationship with Zingerman's to create and lead what are now called Great American Food Tours.

That banner includes future tours to Grand Traverse Bay, day trips into Detroit and possibilities being eyed for more temperate parts of the country during Michigan's cold months.

"We're hard-core foodies," said Janene Centurione, who with Dan opened and owned Ann Arbor and Birmingham bakeries of the Great Harvest Bread Co. franchise before selling about 10 years ago.

As with other Zingerman's food tours, the Sept. 23-25 Grand Traverse Bay tour is designed to provide access to chefs, farmers, food producers and others and convey to the 21 tour participants — most of whom are from elsewhere in the country — what it takes to produce food and drink or bring it to the table.

"I want them to understand more about the challenges of running a small food business and being successful, so that when they go to the farmers market or they go to a farm-to-table chef or they drink a local beer, they understand more about what it took to do that," Centurione said.

Michelle Grinnell, public relations manager for Travel Michigan, said the focus of Zingerman's tour fits what culinary tourists seek.

"People really want that immersive experience; it's not that they just want to go to a restaurant and eat great food anymore," she said.

And, Grinnell said, "how people are more and more traveling is based on their interests and passions. Food and culinary … is certainly a passion for some travelers, (and) they want that insider, behind-the-scene experience."

The tour's agenda includes a stop with the founder of The Little Fleet food truck hub; brewery, winery and cidery meetings, tours and tastings; a sunset sail and dinner aboard the educational tall ship Inland Seas, with captain and others discussing history, culture, and the water's influence on regional agriculture; Traverse City's downtown farmers market; farm tours; and visits with food producers including Boss Mouse Cheese, an artisan cheese maker in Grand Traverse County's Kingsley, and Food for Thought Inc., the organic and wild-harvested gourmet specialty foods company founded by Timothy Young, in Benzie County's Honor.

Young, who will host a locally derived brunch and take guests into the woods to identify and dig leeks and then pickle them in his kitchen, said he wants people "to see another model of how food can be made in an authentic and sustainable manner."

Here's a closer look at the farm-to-table spread that Cammie Buehler of Epicure Catering LLC served at one stop during a Zingerman's tour of the northern Michigan food scene.

Up close and personal

Another stop is Cherry Basket Farm LLC in Leelanau County's Omena, an event venue, farm and home of the local-foods-focused Epicure Catering LLC. Managing Partner Cammie Buehler said guests will tour the property's grounds and learn the history of its barns and structures, see a butchery demonstration by Epicure partner and chef Andrew Schudlich, go into the fields leased and farmed by 9 Bean Rows LLC owner Nic Welty, and dine on locally sourced cuisine, among activities.

Buehler said the structure of the Zingerman's tour provides intimacy and an educational opportunity that's unique.

"It's not just tasting," she said. "It's the whole thing. It's the knowledge; it's the food; it's the how, the why, the where … they're getting a full picture with this format."

Buehler said she hopes guests take away "just how interconnected the local food system is in terms of all these relationships that are built and fostered and encouraged" and also gain skills, knowledge or ideas that they can apply where they live.

Tour leader Centurione said Michigan tour hosts, who are compensated for direct costs such as meals and supplies, gain exposure that could bring them future customers and promotion.

For Zingerman's, food tours have generated revenue of about $300,000 to $350,000 annually in an enterprise that had about $60 million in revenue in the last fiscal year, Emberling said.

"It's a very small part of our business," she said. "But it has very positive side effects. I think it builds a lot of brand awareness and loyalty. People go on other trips, and they tend to buy things from other parts of our organization because of it."

Centurione said future possibilities in the Grand Traverse Bay area include one-day tours and tours by bike — a concept also planned next spring in Detroit. She is working with community members including Wheelhouse Detroit — a bicycle rental, tour, retail and service provider — on day trips for groups of possibly about 20 people to cycle into destinations that include Corktown, Eastern Market and Hamtramck.

"The idea is to showcase all kind of levels of the Detroit food system in the particular neighborhood that we go into," including farmers, small-batch producers, farmers markets, restaurants and others that use local products, said Kelli Kavanaugh, owner and founder of Wheelhouse Detroit.

Kavanaugh said that with guided tours Wheelhouse currently offers, she sees interest in Detroit's history and culture and food-related aspects, such as Wheelhouse's urban agriculture tour that visits several farms in the city.

But the Zingerman's tours "will be an opportunity to focus in, close range, to the food system," Kavanaugh said. And, she said, "the food scene in Detroit is getting a lot of attention right now — rightfully so — so I think the timing to do this is great."